The Collegiate American School opened in September 2011 in Umm Suqeim, Dubai and from the next academic year will take children from KG to Grade 9.

While still new, the school has pitched itself as one of the top tier schools in terms of pricing, with fees of 65,000 AED for Grades 1 to 9.

The school’s owner, Innoventures Education, has clearly invested in both space and facilities to serve its students, however. The school operates on 30,000 square meters of land, its classrooms are equipped with audio-visual facilities, it offers computer laboratories, a library, art rooms, a dance studio, music rooms, swimming pools, a sports hall, basketball courts, badminton courts, and prayer rooms. Given the space it has to work with most classrooms are spacious.

The school has a capacity for up to 1,500 students. Given it’s still a new school, it is also one of the few schools where admission may be possible mid way through the year – depending upon year group. The school is currently ranked Acceptable by the KHDA. It is the school’s first assessment by Dubai’s education regulator.

The Collegiate American School follows a standards-based curriculum utilising US developed Common Core Standards. There is a focus on technology integration in the classroom, with the idea that the next generation of workers will need to be able to breathe technology. The school uses iPads and laptops – replacing in most cases text books. These devices are used, where possible, as the medium of learning.

The school intends, eventually, to be a K12 school, and will continue to add a grade level in each of the next three years to complete its high school offering and graduate its first class in 2017.